Family Ties: A Tale of Rezo and Zelgadis
by Krista Perry
Summary: The untold story of Rezo and Zelgadis, and why things turned out the way they did.
1. Family Ties

by [Krista Perry][1]

* * *

ezo Greyweirs, the Red Priest, felt it when the boy was born. Half a continent away, right in the middle of a casting a complicated spell to heal some foolish street urchin who had broken his back falling out of an apple tree... and he still felt it.   
  
_What is this?_ he thought, so surprised by the overwhelming call of the newborn's strangely familiar life force that he nearly lost his concentration for the spell. The crippled boy lying at his feet moaned in pain, snapping his attention back to his current situation. Cursing silently for allowing himself to be distracted, Rezo finished the spell by rapping the base of his staff against the stone-cobbled street. The metal rings that adorned the jeweled ornament atop his staff jangled with commanding resonance, and the boy was bathed in a bright halo of bluish light that expanded to fill the surrounding area. The crowd that had gathered to watch the spectacle shielded their eyes and gasped as they felt the tingle of residual power ripple across their skin. Later, those people would notice that any minor aches, pains, scratches, cuts and bruises that they had accumulated throughout their daily labors had all vanished in that blinding moment.   
  
Rezo didn't even spare a moment to reflect on the usual irony that, while he could mend a severed spinal cord with relative ease, he couldn't even open his own eyes.   
  
The moment the spell was complete, Rezo lifted his head and gazed into the distance, ignoring the urchin's cry of delight and gratitude as the boy slowly staggered to his feet like a newborn foal, ignoring the usual gasps of amazement and awe from the crowd. His sealed eyes saw nothing but the ever-present darkness, but his inner sight was already far beyond the confines of the walled city, beyond mountains, valleys, lakes and rivers, searching, searching...   
  
...finding.   
  
A large, comfortable room. Thick carpeting. Lacquered oak furniture. A canopied bed, all velvet and lace and sweaty, blood-stained sheets. And a woman in the bed, still gasping from exertion, her skin and hair damp with perspiration; yet she was beautiful and smiling as she reached out...   
  
"A healthy boy, my lady," the midwife said, placing the bundled infant in the woman's arms.   
  
Rezo wasn't in the least bit surprised to find that the woman was his daughter. He had suspected it from the first moment he had felt the birth. He _was_ a bit surprised to discover that she was now a woman, old enough to be married and bear children. Almost _too_ old to bear children, he realized, for she appeared to be in her late forties. _Ah,_ he thought with mild amazement that bordered on annoyance at the reminder. _Has it been so long?_   
  
He had never known the girl personally, having left her mother before she was born to continue his search for the cure to his blindness. And he had no desire to consort with another ill-begotten result of a lapse in his personal judgement. Besides, it appeared the girl had fared well enough, even without whatever dubious fatherly guidance he might have given...   
  
But this was nothing out of the ordinary. She had given birth, and he had yet another unwanted grandson to his name. Why, then, had he felt the infant so strongly? The birth of his own children hadn't even stirred his notice in the least... and yet, with this child, the pull on his soul had been strong -- strong enough to distract him in the middle of a healing trance, which was unheard of...   
  
The answer to Rezo's unspoken question chose that moment to walk through the bedroom door, thus giving him one of the greatest shocks of his life.   
  
Rezo's forty-something daughter raised her loving gaze from the infant in her arms... and favored Rezo's other grandson -- the son of his son by another woman; a strapping young lad in his mid-twenties -- with a radiant smile.   
  
"He has your eyes," she said warmly.   
  
Shaken to the core, Rezo snapped his inner sight back to his physical body.   
  
He noted absently that the crowd was pressing around him now, begging for more miracles as usual, not noticing or not caring about his momentary lapse into an astral trance. Without a word, he pulled his scarlet robes protectively around himself and vanished from under their grasping fingers.   
  
He materialized in the main hall of Shabranigdo's tower. Using his staff to support himself, he staggered like an old man to a nearby cushioned chair and sank down wearily. A twitch of his fingers, and a goblet of wine appeared in his hands. Sipping gratefully, he wondered if he could possibly calculate the odds... and immediately gave up. Who could have predicted, when he had indulged in affairs with two completely unrelated women who lived on virtually opposite ends of the world from each other, that their offspring would meet, marry... and have more offspring?   
  
His daughter. And his grandson. That meant that the infant was both his grandson... and his great-grandson?   
  
Rezo groaned aloud. By the Dark Lord.... What a mess.   
  
At least he now understood why the infant's new life had called to him with such unusual power. His blood ran in the child's veins twice over, after all...   
  
Rezo frowned at the thought.   
  
This could cause... complications.   
  
Resting his head against the back of the chair, he reluctantly cast his inner vision out once again. Whether he liked it or not, this bore further investigation.   
  
The midwife was gone from the room when he returned, and Rezo found his daughter and grandson cuddled against each other, acting for all the world as if they didn't know they were blood-related. Which, under the circumstances, was quite possible. The oblivious couple gazed adoringly down at the bundled infant.   
  
Even now, Rezo realized with a start, he could feel the power coming off the boy in waves. Power that was raw and untamed. Power that was sure to attract all kinds of attention -- mostly the wrong kind of attention.   
  
There were several resentful Mazoku, Rezo knew, who would immediately recognize the source of the child's power, and wouldn't hesitate to use such power against him.   
  
Yes, Rezo mused grimly. Something definitely needed to be done about this child.   
  
And perhaps, just perhaps, something... advantageous... could be salvaged from this breeding disaster...   
  
"Have you decided on a name for your firstborn son?" his daughter asked, looking up into her husband's face.   
  
"Zelgadis," his grandson replied without hesitation, as he reached down to gently brush a lock of pale violet hair from the infant's forehead.   
  
"Zelgadis," his daughter repeated with soft approval.   
  
"Zelgadis," Rezo whispered, and his solitary voice echoed within the walls of the Tower of the Dark Lord.   
  


  
  
"A toast!" Zolf, wizard and mercenary extrordinaire, sloshed his glass towards his best friend and business partner, Gentry Bellmourne -- who was, he noticed blearily, looking quite drunk. Had he himself been thinking more clearly, Zolf might have realized that yet another toast was probably not in their best interests, particularly if they wished to remain upright. Unfortunately, the thought was lost in a rather pleasant warm haze before it could fully form within his brain. "To your wife," he said. "The ever-radiant Alicia, who, against all odds..."   
  
"We've already toasted my wife," Gentry interrupted, grinning lopsidedly as his eyes struggled to focus on the man before him. "Three times now, I think. Or... was it four?"   
  
Zolf laughed, his voice echoing in the vaulted ceiling of the dining hall. He struggled to stand, but his legs didn't seem to be cooperating, so he wisely changed tactics and remained sitting. "Then, to your son," he said, only belatedly realizing that they had already toasted the newborn several times as well.   
  
But apparently that didn't seem to matter, for Gentry straightened in his chair, raising his own glass with such a wild gesture that most of the contents spilled over the side onto the white lace tablecloth. Zolf winced. Alicia was going to have a fit when she saw, but... oh well.   
  
"Yes!" Gentry exclaimed. "To my son. My _son!_ Heir to everything that is mine!"   
  
Zolf tipped his glass eagerly. "May he be as great a warrior and sorcerer as his father."   
  
"Nay... May he surpass me! May he bring honor and glory to the name Bellmourne!"   
  
Satisfied, they clanked their glasses together and drank.   
  
With the toast complete, Gentry suddenly slumped back into his chair, the drink, weariness or both suddenly overcoming him. Though his energy seemed spent, the smile didn't leave his face, nor the gleam fade from his unfocused eyes. "Yes," he said quietly. "He will be great. I can feel it. You should see him, Zolf. Healthy, strong..." His smile faltered slightly. "And... there's something about him..."   
  
_sh-ching_   
  
Outside, in the distance; the jangling sound of metal on metal...   
  
Distracted, Zolf peered up from his empty glass. "Something?"   
  
"Powerful."   
  
"Um," Zolf grunted, not understanding.   
  
_sh-ching_   
  
Zolf's unsteady gaze shifted to the curtained window. The sound of metal on metal...   
  
Gentry didn't seem to notice, too lost in his own muddled thoughts. "Magic... I think..." he said, propping his chin up with one arm, staring off into the distance. "Maybe it's inborn talent, or... I don't know. Can't explain it. Never felt anything like it, really..."   
  
_sh-ching_   
  
From the kitchen, just off of the dining hall, there was a great crashing, clattering sound, as if someone had dropped a tray of dishes. Startled, Zolf and Gentry both glanced over to the swinging door just in time to see a kitchen maid stumble through, her expression apologetic and a bit dazed as she looked at them through heavy-lidded eyes. "Master Bellmourne..." she said.   
  
And then she slumped to the floor in a slumbering heap.   
  
_sh-ching_   
  
A violent surge of alarm-induced adrenaline cleared Zolf's alcohol-addled mind in a rush. He pushed himself to his feet, even as Gentry did the same, their eyes locking with the same fear and anger as they both understood.   
  
Sleep spell. Somehow, a sleep spell had managed to penetrate the estate's magical wards. They were under attack.   
  
"Alicia," Gentry whispered in horror. And then his eyes widened, even as he turned to rush out of the dining hall and up the stairs to the living quarters. "The baby..."   
  
But understanding came too late. Even as Zolf quickly followed, he felt the magic's influence seep through his lowered defenses, and saw that the spell was having the same effect on his friend.   
  
With a clearer mind, he might have been able to cast Reflect, or even some kind of offensive spell, like Flare Arrow... though it wouldn't do any good without a target. And he didn't have a target. Not one he could see, at least...   
  
_sh-ching_   
  
Zolf cursed aloud as he felt himself slipping down to the floor in unconsciousness. The last thing he saw before the darkness claimed him was Gentry, stumbling with wild, weary desperation up the stairs, yet falling, slumping...   
  


  
  
Rezo lowered his staff, the jangling metal rings quieting as the last of his sleep spell blanketed the house. Unsurprisingly, he could feel that his adult grandson had put up the most fight. The boy might even have lasted longer against this, his mildest of magics, had he not been so falling-down-drunk in the first place.   
  
It was just as well. In spite of whatever emotional distance he had placed between himself and his descendants, he wished them no harm. He had no desire to fight with his own.   
  
His true battle lay elsewhere, after all. This current unpleasant task was simply to ensure that his enemies could not create a pawn to use against him in the future...   
  
He glided easily through the warded doorways, inwardly pleased that these offspring of his were not completely without common sense. The magical defenses around the house would have defeated many an invader, sorcerer or otherwise. But they were as nothing in the face of his power.   
  
The house was near pitch black, all the lamps extinguished -- a side effect of the encompassing miasma of the sleep spell. But, to a blind man, darkness was darkness, and Rezo slipped through the halls, silent as a ghost, passing the fallen, sleeping bodies of servants.   
  
He found his adult grandson, snoozing peacefully halfway up the grand staircase, and paused for a moment.   
  
He couldn't see him with natural sight, of course, but he could sense the young man with the astral sight that, in spite of all its power, could never satisfy the ache within him; the burning desire he had to see with physical eyes all the nuances of color and texture, light and shadow and pure human expression that he knew must exist, but could never experience...   
  
The boy had obviously done well for himself, if the house and surrounding lands were any indication. He was physically strong as well, with a lean, muscled form that spoke of plenty of fighting experience. And, of course, there was the aura of magic that, though only a fraction of his own, still resonated with familiarity... and Rezo found himself feeling a strange emotion. A flicker of... pride?   
  
He began to lean over, his hand outstretched. He couldn't see... but perhaps, if he could only touch the boy's face...   
  
He froze, then, shocked at his own lapse of reason, and pulled back, straightening. Now was not the time for such thoughts, or even misplaced feelings of sentimentality. He had work to do. Turning sharply, he ascended the stairs, leaving his grandson behind.   
  
Up the stairs. Down the hall, to the room where mother and infant lay... sleeping...   
  
Rezo paused outside the room in surprise. Powerful, active magic swirled within.   
  
_What on earth?_ he wondered in amazement and curiosity. _Is it the child?_   
  
The door opened before him, and he stepped through.   
  
His daughter was sitting upright in her bed, very much awake and frightened as she clutched her baby to her chest. A strong white-magic shield spell surrounded her and the child, keeping the miasma of sleep magic at bay.   
  
If Rezo was surprised at this, he was even more surprised at her sudden gasp of recognition as she saw him.   
  
"You!" she exclaimed.   
  
_Oh dear,_ thought Rezo.   
  
This was not good.   
  
"You... know who I am?" he asked, his voice carefully quiet and neutral.   
  
Her mouth worked soundlessly for a moment before she managed, hoarsely, "Know you? Of course I know you. I would know you anywhere. You are Rezo, the Red Priest. One of the Five Wise Men of the Age. The most powerful human magic user alive. And... my father."   
  
Rezo could say nothing in the face of such truth, except, "Yes."   
  
They faced each other silently, neither moving.   
  
As he stood in the uncomfortable silence, Rezo wondered, for what would not be the first time that night, why he didn't just put an end to the awkward situation by dissipating her shield with a thought and putting her to sleep.   
  
But he could hear her breathing, in shallow, frightened gasps. And he could hear the infant in her arms, stirring restlessly. The baby didn't cry, and yet he seemed to sense his mother's distress. The power Rezo could feel flowing from the child was tainted with a silent, unfocused anxiety...   
  
"I... looked for you," his daughter said finally, her voice trembling. "We both looked for you... Mother and I. We looked everywhere, following the rumors and stories of your 'healing benevolence.' And yet, while everyone else who needed your compassion seemed to be able to find you... we... never could..." The bitterness and pain in her voice were unmistakable.   
  
Rezo sighed, and slumped imperceptibly. This certainly was an unexpected turn of events, and would have to be handled delicately. He could tell her all of his reasons for why he had left so long ago, and none of them would make any difference. Nothing he could do would heal this wound. And he was ill-prepared to even try.   
  
Perhaps it was best to just be up front and honest with the girl. The woman.   
  
"I..."   
  
_I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I'm such a selfish bastard. I'm sorry that my desperate all- consuming need to find a cure for my blindness has left me incapable of giving you a father's love. I could say I'm sorry forever, but all the apologies in the world won't make up for my neglect, and won't erase your pain..._   
  
Rezo lifted his head and turned his sealed eyes in her direction.   
  
"I'm afraid I am not here for a family reconciliation, nor to apologize for being a bad father," he said.   
  
"I guessed that," she snapped, anger burning through her fear. "Your little sleep spell was supposed to get me as well. Well, I hate to tell you this, _Father_, but I happen to have a bit of magical talent myself, in case you haven't noticed."   
  
"I noticed."   
  
He heard her swallow hard. "Well then... if you haven't come to apologize for abandoning your pregnant lover to a life of shame, struggle and hardship forty-three years after the fact... why are you here?"   
  
Rezo's reply was silence. She seemed quite a bright girl, after all.   
  
And she was.   
  
She drew back in horror, clutching her infant son tighter to her chest. "No..." she whispered. "No, you... you can't have him."   
  
"I don't want him," he said quietly. "I think it should be painfully apparent at this time that I am quite unsuitable for fatherhood."   
  
He could sense her confusion, her fear hanging palpably in the air. "Then... what?"   
  
And here was where he needed to tread delicately. "Your husband," he said. "Do you... know who he is?"   
  
"Wh-what..? I... I don't understand."   
  
And she didn't. He could hear it in her voice.   
  
"Why are you asking about my husband?" she asked, anger flaring once again amidst her fear. "If you've hurt him, I swear I'll-"   
  
"Your husband is fine. He is sleeping downstairs." Well, technically, _on_ the stairs, but there was no need for her to know that.   
  
More importantly, he now knew that she didn't know that she and her husband were _both_ his descendants. Which probably meant that his grandson was unaware of his ancestry, even if his daughter was aware of hers.   
  
He didn't feel the need to enlighten her to that particular unfortunate twist in her life. He had caused her enough pain, and in this case, ignorance was most certainly bliss.   
  
And now, a half-truth would serve as well, if not better than the whole truth in this instance.   
  
"Listen to me carefully," Rezo said quietly, "and I will explain to you why I am here." He took a deep breath. "Your son is in danger."   
  
"Danger?" His daughter's voice was tight and thin. "Yes, from you."   
  
He shook his head. "Not from me. From my enemies, which are many. My blood runs strongly in your son's veins, and the power that you can feel from him now -- power that feels like _my_ power; that screams out to anyone who knows me that he is _of_ me; that he is mine -- is the result."   
  
"He is _not_ yours," she hissed. "You have _nothing_ to do with him!"   
  
"Don't deceive yourself," he responded sharply. "You understand my meaning. You can feel as well as I, that your son's power is virtually identical to mine."   
  
She fell silent at that.   
  
"They will come for him unless I do something."   
  
He could hear her shaking her head. "No," she whispered, and there were tears in her voice; no doubt on her face, if he could only see them. "No, you're lying. He's just a baby..."   
  
"That is to their advantage, for it will make him easier to manipulate as he grows, and he will not be able to defend himself."   
  
"_I_ will defend him," she cried. "My husband and I will fight together! We will not allow _anyone_ to take our child!"   
  
"So," Rezo said quietly. "You believe you can defend him from Mazoku?"   
  
Silence.   
  
"Ma... Mazoku?"   
  
Rezo sighed; a heavy, world-weary sigh. "I'm going to let you in on a terrible secret, my dear. There is a man who is working to resurrect the Dark Lord, Shabranigdo." He heard her sharp intake of breath at that. "I have been trying to stop him," he continued, "but just in case I cannot, I have also been working to find a way to destroy the Dark Lord himself, should he ever be brought back to life."   
  
A half-truth. But enough of the truth, that he didn't feel _too_ guilty...   
  
"Because of this, as you can imagine, there are many Mazoku who would like to destroy me. Or, better yet, see me destroyed by my own grandson, for reasons that have hopefully become obvious to you.   
  
"You have the power to wield magic, child, but you cannot hope to stand against Mazoku. They will come and take your son from you, even if they have to pry him from your dead hands, and then they will corrupt him for their own evil purposes."   
  
He paused.   
  
In the silence, he could hear her sobbing.   
  
Finally, she spoke. "What... are you going to do... with my son?" she asked brokenly.   
  
Rezo bowed his head. "I am going to seal away his power. Once I do that, he will not be able to perform any magic. But he _will_ be able to grow up and live a normal life with you and your husband, without any of you having to live in fear because of my misbegotten legacy."   
  
His daughter wept. She knelt on her bed, her legs curled under her as she cradled her infant son, rocking back and forth...   
  
He waited.   
  
Eventually, her weeping subsided. Then, slowly, she moved to the side of her bed, stood, and came over to him.   
  
"I hate you," she said.   
  
Rezo suppressed the urge to flinch. "I know."   
  
"You're not doing this for him. You're doing this for you. You're not afraid _for_ him. You're afraid _of_ him."   
  
Rezo didn't respond.   
  
She reached out and handed him the bundled infant. He took the tiny child carefully, and rested him in the crook of his arm, surprised at how weightless the boy seemed.   
  
"Do what you have to," she said coldly. "And then leave. I never want to see your face again."   
  
Rezo nodded his head in humble acquiescence. Then, as she turned away, he eliminated her shield of white magic and caught her slumping body with a thought as she fell instantly asleep. A slight amount of levitation, and she was resting peacefully on her bed.   
  
And now, to get this unpleasant business over with and behind him.   
  
The infant stirred in his arms suddenly, tiny arms and legs jerking within the tight confines of the blanket that swaddled him, and Rezo hesitated, wondering with the faint stirrings of panic if the child would cry. "Hush," he whispered, gently, but with a touch of anxiety, hoping he could stop the wailing before it began. "Hush, now..."   
  
To his surprise, the child didn't cry.   
  
Instead, to his even greater discomfort, he thought he could feel the baby... looking at him.   
  
Impossible. Rezo tried to shrug off the feeling as his stressed imagination, taxed by the disturbing events of the evening. After all, the boy was only a day old, and newborns were well known to be practically... blind...   
  
Rezo paused.   
  
Then, reluctantly... almost fearfully...he reached out with one hand to gently caress the face of the infant boy nestled in the crook of his arm.   
  
He felt soft skin; a light thatch of thin, silky hair. The small, delicate curve of an ear, the whisper of an eyebrow, the little bump of a nose. And then he felt tiny, warm hands reach out and grasp his fingers in a surprisingly firm grip...   
  
He suppressed a gasp... then marveled silently, a strange, unfamiliar warmth filling him at the touch of the infant's hands. So strong, this child...   
  
And, at that moment, as he held the baby, felt the warmth and life in the tiny body cradled in his arms, he knew.   
  
This child was his. This infant boy belonged to him, far more and far deeper than he belonged to his daughter or grandson. For while the boy's parents might each claim a single bond of blood, the child was bound to him twice and again, with ties of both blood and power...   
  
He had told this very thing to his daughter, but at the time, those were just words, without any real power over himself, meant only to convince her to give into his wishes...   
  
But now he understood that he was more right than he could have imagined.   
  
This boy. _His._   
  
And now, he - Rezo, the Red Priest and healer - was going to break those ties... and cripple the boy for life.   
  
But... it was for his own good.   
  
It had to be.   
  
"Come, little Zelgadis," he whispered. "It's time."   
  
And, as he began to cast the spell, it was only then that Rezo realized that there were tears leaking from his sealed eyes...   
  


  
  


   [1]: mailto:kperry@aros.net



	2. Family Ties

**A Slayers Prequel Fanfic  
**

**Family Ties  
Chapter Two (teaser) **

  
The overcast night sky above the Bellmourne estate glowed eerily, boiling and churning with bright flashes of scarlet-stained sorcery. 

Dregs watched from a safe distance, the way he always did; the way he had for centuries now. And yet, as he sifted his pliable, charcoal-skinned body into the forest shadows that were shrinking even as the sky filled with unearthly light, he found his growing dread tinged with an unsettled curiosity. 

_What in the name of the Dark Lord are you doing in there, Red Priest?_

Dregs was a Mazoku who enjoyed the simple things in life. Pain, suffering, despair... Like all Mazoku, he fed on these dark human emotions the way a tick bloats itself on the blood of an unwitting beast. Which is why Dregs had found his assignment of the past few centuries so pleasant. 

Follow Rezo, his Master had told him, ages ago. Watch him. Report anything unusual. 

And so he did. It was something he was good at, after all, skulking in the shadows, keeping ever out of sight; never confronting (which was fine with him, since he hated confrontations), but always watching, always staying just out of range of the Red Priest's powerful senses. And it didn't really matter that he had to keep his distance. Rezo was so full of pain, so full of constant anguish and yearning bordering on agony for something just out of reach... The priest's dark emotions always extended far beyond the field of his acute warning instincts. Thus, without even knowing, Rezo kept Dregs well fed and quite content through the years. So content, Dregs didn't even mind the endless monotony of his assignment. 

Follow Rezo. Watch him heal people. Feed off of his despair; despair so powerful that it drowns out the joy of those whom he cures. Follow him to one of his many households, watch him study magic with a furious intensity that never fails to leave him frustrated and unfulfilled. Watch him always return to the Tower of the Dark Lord and pace the halls as he agonizes within himself over whether or not he should give in to his decision to resurrect the Dark Lord Shabranigdo and put the entire world at risk just to unseal his blind eyes... 

Same old same old. 

At the moment, however, Dregs' monotonous assignment had unexpectedly taken a turn for the interesting. Here, at the home of Rezo's offspring, power flashed from behind the dark windows of the large house, and the white stone walls seemed to gleam under that boiling sky. Rezo was working some serious magic within his kindred's home, though what spell he might be casting that could cause such turmoil in nature, Dregs couldn't begin to guess. 

He'd never felt anything like it before. 

And, for the first time in centuries, he was very, very worried. 

This qualified as something "unusual," he was certain of it. And that meant that he was going to have to report this to his Master. 

The thought made him cringe. The silent shadows around him writhed in response to his distress as he cursed Rezo silently. 

Centuries of relative peace and quiet, enjoying the pleasures of the mortal world, and now he had to return to Hell. 

  
*^_^* 

  
Hellmaster Fibrezo clapped his small hands with glee. His eyes, huge and sapphire-blue in a cheerful eight-year-old face framed by long locks of thick black hair, gleamed with excitement. This picture of youthful innocence was shattered, however, as he lifted one blood-smeared hand to brush the hair from his face, leaving a long wet scarlet streak on his cheek. "Again!" he crowed. "Let's do it again!" 

Rezelle, Hellmaster's general and second-in-command, giggled and tossed her mane of golden ringlets with a flip of her head. Her sweet little gingham pinafore -- a perfectly adorable fit on her five-year-old body -- was stained with her own bloody hand prints. "Are you sure, Lord Fibrezo?" she asked, even though she already knew the answer. It was all part of the game. 

Fibrezo laughed with delight and gestured to the huge creature before him -- a gold dragon, the size of a house, pinned to the stone floor of the Great Hall with huge granite spikes through his wings. The once-mighty dragon's scaled flesh was lined with innumerable pairs of parallel cuts, deep and thin, that oozed blood; his great faceted eyes were open and strangely sentient, though clouded with agony and the first glimmers of encroaching madness. 

"See?" Fibrezo replied. "He's still got life in him, and if we're careful, he'll last a long time yet. Years, maybe." 

"We don't have to be _too_ careful, I hope," Rezelle said, pouting, sticking out her lower lip. 

"Of course not." Fibrezo reached out and patted the dragon's shredded golden flank almost affectionately. "Now let's go again!" 

"Pardon, M-master," whispered a hoarse voice from the bone-encrusted doors of the Great Hall. 

Fibrezo turned, sudden impatient anger flaring within him at the interruption, to see a pathetic excuse of a Mazoku peering timidly with watery yellow eyes from behind one of the doors. Even across the hall, he could see his minion's gray form trembling in fear. "Stop sniveling and come out where I can see you," he snapped. "What do you want?" 

Dregs stepped cautiously from behind the door and cast a nervous glance at the flayed dragon. "I... I... I just n-needed to..." 

"Boring!" Rezelle chimed in, her eyes glinting maliciously towards the hapless minion. "Come on, Lord Fibrezo, let's _play_!" 

"B-but..." Dregs gibbered in terror as the Hellmaster's young face pinched in a frown that was directed at him. "But I n-need to t-tell you--" 

Fibrezo's eyes narrowed, and there was a great flash of light. When the light faded, Dregs stood silent in the doorway, encased in a great crystal shard. The frozen Mazoku's watery yellow eyes were wide in unblinking terror. 

Rezelle turned away from the sight indifferently as she reached down to heft her little snow sled -- a common human-child contraption that Fibrezo had adapted for Mazoku Lord purposes -- over her shoulder by the strap tanned from human skin. "Wonder what he wanted to say," she said conversationally. 

Fibrezo shrugged, then lifted his own sled from the floor, noticing with a pleased eye how the razor-edged runners still dripped blood. "It can wait until after we're through playing. If I sat around and waited for him to stutter out his message now, I'd be an old man by the time he was finished." 

And, as they both began to climb the hill of living, blood-slick dragon flesh with their sleds on their backs, they both laughed at the joke. 

  
*^_^* 

As the last of his sealing spell faded away, Rezo looked with his astral sight at the face of the infant cradled in his arms, and knew that he had made a terrible mistake. 

He knew, not because he could see the pallor of the child's skin, though if he could have, he would have seen that Zelgadis' face had taken on a definite greyish hue. He knew because of his aura. The child's aura was now a low, weak flicker where, only minutes before, it had been blazing and brilliant to behold. 

Zelgadis' aura was _too_ weak, Rezo realized with dismay. In his attempt to seal all of the infant's power away from the prying senses of his enemies, had he gone too far? 

Yes... he could feel now, with his inner vision -- vision that had found and eliminated the sources of illness and disease, both physical and magical, within the bodies of countless human beings -- that a piece of the child's very _soul_ had been caught up in the sealing spell... 

No... Rezo shook his head, feeling the last of his cool composure slip away... and again, he felt the tears seep from his sealed eyes. 

He had only meant to make the boy normal. Not _less_ than normal. Not less than whole... 

And this boy was his... 

No. Not anymore. Never. What right did he have to claim ties of family, of affection to this innocent newborn when he had just condemned this formerly-strong child to a half-life of frailty? How foolish was he to imagine, even for a moment, that he might be able to give love to this child? 

He knew, from long experience, that he was only capable of destroying those he loved... 

He could sense his daughter on the bed behind him, sleeping dreamlessly, still in the thrall of his spell. 

She hated him. 

Well, he mused grimly, she would hate him more when she discovered what he had just done to her only son. And perhaps she would tell her son why he wasn't strong enough to play with other children, why he was so much more susceptible to illness, why he was so _weak_... Perhaps she would teach her son to hate him as well. 

Slowly, tenderly, he placed the now-listless infant in his mother's arms. 

"I'm sorry, my little Zelgadis," he whispered. "But it's for your own good." 

Not enough. Never enough. 

The tears were still drying on his cheeks when he fled the house on foot, too exhausted and grief-stricken to use his magic to escape. He no longer cared if anyone saw him or recognized him. If word got around that the honorable Red Priest had stricken a day-old infant with an incurable magical illness, it was only what he deserved. It was only the truth, after all. 

_I swear this now, Zelgadis,_ he thought as he ran, and the thought was his only comfort amidst his wrenching guilt that threatened to send him to his knees in despair. _I swear that when you are old enough... when you are _safe_ from those who would hurt you... I will break the seal._

  
*^_^* 

  
  
To be continued.   



End file.
